IT Management Slideshow: Smartphone Addiction: Nine Telltale Signs

Driving Under the Influence

You use a smartphone while behind the wheel -- the equivalent of a DUI, Durvasula cautions.

We recently reported on a study that sheds light on the increasing prevalence of smartphone addiction, in which 88% of professionals polled say they'd feel either disoriented, distraught, lonely or physically ill if they went without their device for a working week. You may dismiss your own constant use of a smartphone as simply a convenient way to get through the day, ignoring the telltale signs of a developing problem. One troubling threshold that's not to be ignored: When the device seems to control the user, as opposed to the user maintaining control over the device. "There are people who are compulsive about other habits, such as eating or shopping," says Ramani Durvasula, a licensed clinical psychologist and California State University professor who has appeared on the program, Dr. Drew's Lifechangers. "And this paradigm can be extended to smartphone use." To provide additional insight for CIO Insight readers, Durvasula and career coach/productivity expert Marsha Egan, CEO of InboxDetox.com, have come up with these nine "red flag" behaviors that indicate possible smartphone addiction: